Some of the interviewees really didn't do their products a great service and without your questions wouldn't have really anything to say. It's FREE advertising people...

It blows my mind at who some of these companies have representing them.

I appreciate your efforts!

It was interesting that one of the vendors there commented "We only service military, so we're not interested in being interviewed."

A couple hours later, I introduced a colonel in the Indian Army, responsible for certain types of purchases. He had come to PIA predominantly based on the videos we'd shot at the previous symposium. Then there are the skydiving vendors that practically chased us down with "what time can you come by and get us on tape?"

For me, I'm very interested in what the military is doing. Some of the things seen in the video are very cool, such as the CPS mobile breaching system with the sledge hammer, pick and ladder.

Mirage was showing a new Accuracy setup, Aerodyne spoke to it (but showed nothing), and SunPath also pointed to an Accuracy rig. It was interesting to see/hear the renewed interest in Accuracy (perhaps now that it's a separate event?)

Very glad to finally see and hear our Jerry Baumchen (which was a big surprise to me, I imagined him as a grey bearded sailor ), and also our SangiroAlso very happy to see "different" vendors as Oriental Weaving

Many thanks for the great work, specially given the conditions. I just find it a bit saddening from "The Industry" who has more cameras than jumpers per jump, supersonic freefall footage , you name it someone filmed it, that "they" didnt manage to have "more people like DSE" to get a complete representation of the symposium. But that is just me. Great thanks again for the effort

edited to add : the Norman Kent interview should be a sticky in the video forum

Cost to edit isn't going to be cheap. Who pays for that? I like you guys, but I'm sure not donating that kind of time. Perhaps PIA could talk USPA into spending some of their "sport promotion" $$, but remember, PIA isn't connected to USPA; they're separate entities.

Next thought...The PIA really wants butts in seats at the Symposium (which is also separate from the tradeshow floor). If the videos are up, it's hard to get people to attend.

That is what I've done at the BPA AGM. The main room is filmed by our paid for AV guys. I ask those who are presenting in the (two) smaller rooms if they can provide their own camera/operator. If they can't, I run around trying to film as much as I can.

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Cost to edit isn't going to be cheap. Who pays for that? I like you guys, but I'm sure not donating that kind of time. Perhaps PIA could talk USPA into spending some of their "sport promotion" $$, but remember, PIA isn't connected to USPA; they're separate entities.

I do the 'editing', and I use that term loosely, since you get what you pay for, i.e. nothing. Sometimes I will try and integrate the Power Point slides into the video.

In reply to:

Next thought...The PIA really wants butts in seats at the Symposium (which is also separate from the tradeshow floor). If the videos are up, it's hard to get people to attend.

Just a couple things to consider.

Isn't the PIA about networking primarily? People don't go purely for the symposium do they? The talks are an added draw for those who were probably going anyway? It really isn't practical for a lot of people to attend, especially those outside of CONUS. Yes, putting them online might lose them a few attendees, but it will be of greater benefit to the community as a whole

Yeah man, you do a hell of a job leading them into the right questions we want answered. Again props for that. They really don't know how lucky on both accounts to A. To be filmed and B. To have you be the one filming asking the right questions. (minus velocity girl of course!)

I can't defend nor attack PIA; their program is voluntary right down to the projectors. No paid A/V guys. 5 rooms constantly running. Me? I donated a tremendous amount of time, and can't blame the guy that bailed on them because he didn't know what he was getting into. Roughly 250 hours of footage to collate, assign, edit, output, upload is a big task to ask from a volunteer, IMO. Add to it that skydivers are never, ever satisfied with what's in front of them, there is never a real payoff. Maybe someone wants to take on the task of going to the manufacturers and charging them individually to build a collective plate, but that's more work that I'd want to put into it.

Not being able to attend this year, I was glad to see the videos that were put online, but do wish the seminars were as well.

Maybe this is something the community at large could take up, instead of relying on PIA - though you do lose some potential standardization.

The previous comment about more cameras being in skydiving than skydivers could easily be explored. Not that it solves all the steps, but I'm sure if there was a camera set up at the back of the room, prior to the speaker starting their seminar they could ask for a camera operator volunteer. I'm sure someone would volunteer. That doesn't solve any issues of making sure there is a camera in the room, or the editing, but I'm sure we could get more people to step up and volunteer. At least for filming.

The beard was expected because of the boat, à la Hemingway (not Bill Booth style ) Baby still expected for next week, not before hopefully Normiss is indeed very out of the loop. I even heard that a greenie lady was aware of it

Now back to the subject. Is it my computer or is it YouTube ? It seems the Skydive Perris video is kind of corrupted, bugs at the middle. Can anybody confirm ?